By Guest Blogger Paula Jager, CSCS
Halfway . . .
First of I would like to clear up any misconceptions from the initial post on my quest to lose 11 pounds of body fat. I am not doing this to make anyone feel bad about themselves. I am sharing a personal journey at this stage of my life and testing my hypothesis that it is primarily lifestyle that causes weight gain no matter what the age.
Second of all, I am not “self loathing”, “repulsed” or have any kind of self esteem issues. Because of my nutritional and exercise habits of the last several years along with the wisdom that can accompany those years and learning from mistakes in my misguided youth I am the strongest mentally and emotionally than at any other decade in my life. While I will never be 25 again–nor look like it–I am extremely comfortable in my own slightly lined skin. I do not over exercise releasing large amounts of cortisol and exhausting my adrenal glands but train appropriately in moderate amounts to stay strong and healthy; listening to my body.
Recovery is huge as you age; at 51–and this may not be true at 71–I can still go as long and as hard as my younger counter parts just not as often and I am ok with that. It gives me more time for the other things I like to do in my very balanced life.
Back to the topic at hand and how I have lost 7 lbs in the last 5 weeks. . .
After keeping a 3 week log my average daily caloric intake based on 2/19 — 3/10 was 2400 calories a day. The foods were all from quality sources and the meals home cooked. My “indulgences” were averaging 2+x a week coming from homemade ice cream, 70% cacao bars and grits–we all have our weaknessesïŠ The macronutrient ratios were near ideal: about 21% protein, 19% carbs and 60% fat on average. Why then was all that junk in my trunk? My journal is public; to view it the before the Challenge go to. . .
www.fitday.com Login: unsername is #1 jaguar and password is shebeast
Couple of reasons, main one being I was consuming too many calories, duh!! Average protein per day was 125g (good), carbs 115 g (good for maintenance) and fat 163g (too high–I’m not quite that active). My log shows me that while the right fats are necessary and very important out of the 3 macronutrient ratios that’s where my excess calories were coming from. Eating tablespoons of nut butter, hunks of cheese, drowning myself in raw cream and one too pieces of homemade cheesecake were more than I needed. Portion sizes are important. My activity levels at present do not demand that much energy. And while the sources are all good, I’m not burning the fuel and it’s getting stored as fat. By putting the times in my food log I also see that I am eating too late or my largest meal consistently as the last.
So what did I change? I reduced my fat intake by about 20% (this is only because I was grossly overeating in that area) which will put me down to about 115 g a day, cut back my carbohydrates to about 50 g a day for the first 2 to 3 weeks and kept the protein at around 95 to 120 g a day to support my 102 lbs of lean body mass and strength training activity levels. This will save me about 300 to 400 calories a day. Depending on how I looked, felt and was losing I adjusted as needed during the initial 5 weeks. I kept the largest volume of my carbohydrate intake immediately following my workouts. I did not change my exercise as I was already working out an average of 3-4 days a week consisting of 2 to 3 high intensity weight lifting days and 1 day of some type of sprinting with mobility work interspersed throughout the week.
First 2 weeks of this I felt phenomenal and had a steady loss of about 1 ¼ pound a week. I was not hungry, I did not feel deprived, I had no cravings and I was satisfied. After about the 3rd week I felt something was “off”; my energy was fine throughout the day but not what it needed to be during my workouts. I also was having trouble sleeping (which I never do). I felt “wired”. Because of the intense and frequent nature of my workouts I added in an additional piece of fruit after the first 3 weeks and a bit of starchy vegetable (sweet potato, turnip, beet or red potatoes) about every 2 to 3 days or as my body felt it needed it. If I am not exercising I do fine on considerably less carbohydrate. If someone is grossly overweight, sedentary and has metabolic derangement they would not need the extra carbohydrate. This imo is highly individual and would depend upon the amount of body fat one has to lose also. After about 5 days of slightly upping the carbohydrate intake to around 85-100 g issues resolved. I am down 7 ½ pounds with 3 ½ weeks left and 3 ½ lbs to go. Body fat dropped from 18.7% to 15.4%.
To view my nutritional intakes on the challenge please go to www.fitday.com Login: username is pjager and password is #1shebeast
My caloric needs along with my macronutrient ratios will not work for everyone. We are all metabolically individual and several factors such as age, gender, activity level and genetics will influence. If I had to give my opinion (and that is all it is) on a default macronutrient ratio for most people I would have to say around 15-30% protein / 10 to 30% carbohydrate and 50-70% fat. That’s a big range but there is also a big difference between how an overweight, sedentary sick person would eat and a healthy athlete training intensely. There is not a one size fits all equation.
At this midway point, I will have to say that my initial hypothesis that lifestyle choices (in nutrition and exercise) rather than the inevitability of weight gain for post menopausal women is looking very good.
One Confession I must make: I drink coffee–1 big cup everyday–Starbucks organics. Weaknesses–we all have them; but at least it has plenty of raw cream and no sugar.
Stay tuned for the final chapter and After Photos. . .
Paula Jager CSCS and Level 1 CrossFit and CF Nutrition Certified is the owner of CrossFit Jaguar.
Her exercise and nutrition programs yield life changing results
I just think this is one of the best weight loss experiments I’ve seen on a blog. Very well thought out and healthy. As someone who has competed and blogged about low fat and fitness in the past-I am now finally understanding how important fats are for simply being healthy. And even though the healthy fats are necessary-they still need to be kept in balance-as you’re showing.
I can totally relate to that bit of bulge on the fitness bod; when I started whole heartedly adding more fat to my diet I put on a couple extra pounds because I was adding too much. I’m in the process of cutting that back just a tad…balance is always the key!
hi , thank you for ur article. i am freaking out because i gained 10 pounds in the last six months. my periods are becoming very irregular and i turned 50 this year, so i am assuming it is menopause starting. joy joy. i know that i must exercise more. i eat pretty well, my shortcoming is that i love sugar. but am curbing it as much as i can. best wishes and i always look forward to ur articles.
Paula,
This is very helpful – we have to put the work in to figure out our own bodies and how much of what kind of fuel we require.
And it really is work. Obviously we are all different; when I tried a couple of meals consisting of mainly carbohydrates (all healthy and grain free) I tanked–got a rebound hypoglycemia. I function remarkedly better on meals consisting of protein and fat but those fuel ratios don’t work for everyone.
I am kind of on the same wavelength, realizing that I was consuming too many sweets even though they are healthy snacks. I restrict myself to one indulgence per day now and feel so much better. I haven’t been weighing myself but can feel a difference – both mentally and physically.
Claire Viadro you took the words right out of my mouth! 😀
Thanks for sharing this journey with us, Paula. I really commend you for being self-aware and adjusting your diet as needed to feel and function at your best. That’s an excellent lesson for everyone to learn–if something’s not working for you then tweak and adjust until you find what does work for you. Flexibility and balance are key, and it sounds like you have those down.
Your welcome! It seems that even after all these years I am still adjusting, tweaking and continually learning but then again, that is what its all about–the journey.
I read Taubes book and it was excellent. Calories are only part of the equation but they do matter. If you eat too much you will get fat. In my particular case I was chowing down late at night and often topping it off with a big slab of cheesecake or bowl of ice cream. You do that often enough and it will end up in your rear, thighs or gut.
Fat does not make you fat. 50-60% of my daily intake comes from fat and primarily from animals. I render my own lard and eat it. Exercise does indeed make a contribution to fat loss. Developing and maintaining lean muscle tissue speeds up the metabolism. Metabolic conditioning will prime your body for fat buring for up to 2 days afterwards not to mention make you look better.
And it does take “self awareness and conscious effort”. Thank you for recognizing that. But the rewards are immeasurable; and it feel good to fit into my short shorts again:)
Congrats Paula!
How much do you think reducing your glycogen stores plays into this? The reason I ask is that last fall I stopped eating grains and dramatically cut carbs (have slowly added some back in), and I lost 15 lbs in the first 30-40 days. I wasn’t doing any real exercise at the time, so I don’t think I was buring fat that quickly (I was still eating about the same amount of calories).
Thanks, and good luck clipping those last few pounds. Maybe you could try doing a triple Fran workout on the day before your last weigh in 🙂 – that is what I was “threatened” with this morning at CrossFit.
…Tim
Hi Tim, I would say maybe the first few pounds from the occaisonal sugar. I took grains out of my diet about 2 years ago (and was amazed at how much better I felt) so even when I was overeating the bulk of that was not from excessive carbohydrates. Plus the type of training I do usually depletes the glycogen stores after about 3 or 4 days. I added in some sweet and white potatoes the second half every 3 or 4 days to replenish and it worked well.
A triple Fran??? That would kill maybe, maybe attempt a personal best on a single one though:)
kill me, I meant
Paula, it wasn’t the fact that you were consuming food (calories) late at night as much as WHAT you were consuming. I’m guessing that you could have filled your body with the same number of daily calories, composed of different food and your body would have reacted very differently.
One last note, it should be said the exercise will only contribute to fat loss if the person’s body is in hormonal balance. If they are stressed, consuming caffeine, not sleeping enough…most likely in adrenal fatigue, their body will actually hold onto the fat rather then shed it, as well as increase it’s stress levels by exercising, leading to a lower heart rate variability and thus continuing the cycle. I suggest they clean up their food (eliminating caffeine, grains, alcohol, and dairy) and find exercises that encourage the usage of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is in charge of “rest and digest” (like qi gong, breathing exercises) until their body is balanced enough to workout.
I know my body well. The plain fact of the matter was that while I was consuming primarily the RIGHT foods I was consuming too much too often. Period. Portions matter. The only “types” of food I removed were the occasional bowl of ice cream or piece of cheesecake. Everything else remained the same, just less. I did not go hungry or take my caloric level beyond a healthy range. Too few calories and you will slow the metabolism, halting fat loss.
Indeed–if someone is stressed, lacking sleep and has hormonal imbalances they will certainly hold onto fat. I encourage all my clients to eliminate grains, legumes and pastuerized dairy. As well as greatly moderate their consumption of alcohol and caffeine or eliminate altogether if certain issues are present.
While “rest and digest” type exercises can be most beneficial even a metabolically unbalanced person will heal faster and more efficiently with a reduced intensity strength and conditioning program appropriate for their level along with lifestyle modifications.
Wow, I am amazed at your self control and self awareness! You make it clear that losing weight takes a lot of self awareness and conscious effort, and that you’re not just fit because you’re lucky – you’re fit because you put the work in and take care of your body. In relation to the last commenter – I think you DID make it clear that it wasn’t just about cutting back on calories (which I agree is pretty worthless) but that you looked at your ratios of what you were eating and how much exercise you were getting (which, I’m sorry – you will NEVER convince me that exercise doesn’t play a role in weight loss, that’s just silly). And clearly you don’t believe that fat makes us fat, as the previous comment suggested – but you made it clear that even when you’re eating the right foods, you still have to watch how MUCH you eat, and that physical activity (which our ancestors got plenty of, even though they weren’t going to the gym like we do now!) does play a role in whether or not your body will store your fat or burn it off. You’re a great example to us all! Thanks for sharing!
Gary Taubes’ latest book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It makes a persuasive case that the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat is completely wrong. He also convincingly explains that fat does not make us fat, and that exercise does not help us lose weight. This is hard to reconcile with Paula’s post about too many fat calories being the problem. As a 50-year-old myself, I think it is more complex than just “too many calories.”
I’m with Claire- there is far too much evidence that “calories in, calories out” is completely false. If you’re even to look at Weston Price’s work, long before Taubes, you’ll see that the caloric intake varied greatly between ethnic groups, yet their sizes didn’t correlate to more calories equalling bigger people, and vice versa. Frankly, I’m rather surprised that a site like yours Sarah that encourages real eating and traditional foods would have a guest post that is nutritionism at its best/worst (depending on how you look at it). It is not about breaking everything down into calories, fat, protein, etc…the sum is greater than it’s parts. It’s about creating a food palate that is diverse and whole. My husband who is a strength coach and counsels on nutrition puts his clients on his detox before they start training with him, where several of them have lost upwards of 20 lbs. in a month without counting a calorie or even picking up a weight. I desperately wish people would stop counting calories!
Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait for the finals. 🙂